I mourn the death of Bassem Abu Rahme, the 18th to be murdered, along with scores injured, while protesting against Israel’s illegal annexation Wall in the occupied West Bank. The death and injury toll at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces includes minors, countless local residents, journalists, and many Israelis and internationals. The oft- militarily-besieged village of Bil’in is one of countless villages in the path of the annexation wall Israel has constructed for so-called ‘security’ reasons, stealing Palestinian lands, and lives, in the process.

According to the Bil’in village website, Basem was shouting to the (armed) Israeli soldiers, “we are in a nonviolent protest, there are kids and internationals,” when he an Israeli soldier fired a tear gas canister at his chest, from a distance of 40 m.

I met Basem on numerous occasions in Bil’in protests in 2007 and was struck by his poise, courage, and humour. He could inevitably be found at the front of the march, dancing and singing as loud as the best of the villagers. Many a time, when I’d become despondent at the brazen abuse of power by the Israeli soldiers and their lack of humanity, it was the very humanity of demonstrators like Basem which lifted my spirits anew. Like most Bil’in residents, and those of other villages non-violently protesting the stealing of their land, Basem was out every Friday, facing live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets, and various types of tear gas. It was the latest high-velocity tear gas projectile which bore into Basem’s chest, just as one did a month prior to Tristan Anderson’s head, rendering him critically injured.

And people, many of the whom support the rape and occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, and of course Palestine, but not the legitimate right to resist a military occupation, have the gall to ask why Palestinians don’t non-violently resist, when they’ve been doing so all along, alongside legitimate resistance.

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2 comments

Obviously we have not heard one word of any of this on our servile, grovelling media here in Italy (Hi, Eva – I’m a friend of an ISM colleague of yours, Vittorio).

May Basem indeed rest in peace. I think your last paragraph says it all, really, illustrating the insulting paradox in the questions of those who think that Palestinians do nothing but spend their days in the shed building qassam “rockets”.

International Journalism Award From Mexican Press Club March 2017

about me

Eva Bartlett is an independent writer and rights activist with extensive experience in Syria and in the Gaza Strip, where she lived a cumulative three years (from late 2008 to early 2013). She documented the 2008/9 and 2012 Israeli war crimes and attacks on Gaza while riding in ambulances and reporting from hospitals.
Since April 2014, she has visited Syria 7 times, including two months in summer 2016 and one month in Oct/Nov 2016 and her latest visit in June 2017 (to Aleppo, Homs, al-Waer, Madaya, al-Tall, Damascus).
Her early visits included interviewing residents of the Old City of Homs, which had just been secured from militants, and visiting historic Maaloula after the Aramaic village had been liberated of militants. In December 2015, Eva returned to old Homs to find life returning, small shops opened, some of the damaged historic churches holding worship anew, and citizens preparing to celebrate Christmas once again.
On her 5th visit in June-August 2016, she went twice to Aleppo, also visiting: liberated Palmyra; Masyaf to interview survivors of the terrorist attacks on Aqrab and Adra; survivors of the May 23 terrorist attacks on Jableh & Tartous; and the Barzeh district of Damascus, as well as returning again to Maaloula and Latakia.
On her sixth visit to Syria, in October and November, she visited Aleppo twice more, as well as areas around Damascus. The testimonies Eva gathered in Aleppo starkly contrasted narratives corporate media had been asserting.
On her seventh visit to Syria in June 2017, she revisited Aleppo, including going to eastern areas formerly terrorist-occupied, finding that hospitals had been militarized, basements turned into prisons. She also went to the highly-propagandized over village of Madaya, as well as al-Waer, Homs, and al-Tall.
Many of her published Syria writings, videos, photos can be found at this link:
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/syria/
A more detailed account of her activism and writings can be found here:
https://ingaza.wordpress.com/about-me/